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sophia_sol) wrote2015-08-24 07:27 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-08-24 07:27 pm
How to Ditch Your Fairy, by Justine Larbalestier
Superficially enjoyable, but I had some real issues with it.
The worst part was that the main villain of the piece, Danders Anders (aka Andrew) was blatantly coded as autistic, though that word was never used, and he upheld various hurtful stereotypes about autistic people. I was deeply unimpressed.
I was also frustrated by the way the book upheld the gender binary. One of the characters, Fiorenze, has a fairy that makes all the boys obsessed over her and in love with her. (The premise of the book is that nearly everyone has a fairy that makes them amazing at one particular thing - for example, finding lost spare change, or always getting great parking spots, or having perfect hair all the time, or whatever.) And like, apparently in this universe there are no genderqueer people? Because ALL boys are caught by the spell of Fiorenze's fairy, ALL of the girls hate her for it, and there's nobody who has any other kind of reaction. And probably this universe doesn't have any trans people either, because I figure there would certainly be trans people who aren't yet out in high school, and yet the reactions to this spell fall entirely along the lines of what gender all the characters are read as. And also the possibility of alternate reactions to the spell by people who are gay or bi or ace was never addressed (eg a gay boy who was nonetheless attracted to Fiorenze because of her fairy and found it a deeply disconcerting experience) so apparently everyone (except maybe Fiorenze herself?) is straight.
The third aspect that frustrated me is not a big issue like the first two, but it still disappointed me: it was clear that the most important emotional arc was the relationship between Fiorenze and Charlie (both of whom are female btw), and there was even indication that Fiorenze is not straight, AND YET the romance arc for the book was between Charlie and some random dude and there was like zero spark between them. Unlike between Fiorenze and Charlie, who I shipped TERRIBLY. (I am convinced btw that if nothing else, Fiorenze has the most massive crush on Charlie.)
The worst part was that the main villain of the piece, Danders Anders (aka Andrew) was blatantly coded as autistic, though that word was never used, and he upheld various hurtful stereotypes about autistic people. I was deeply unimpressed.
I was also frustrated by the way the book upheld the gender binary. One of the characters, Fiorenze, has a fairy that makes all the boys obsessed over her and in love with her. (The premise of the book is that nearly everyone has a fairy that makes them amazing at one particular thing - for example, finding lost spare change, or always getting great parking spots, or having perfect hair all the time, or whatever.) And like, apparently in this universe there are no genderqueer people? Because ALL boys are caught by the spell of Fiorenze's fairy, ALL of the girls hate her for it, and there's nobody who has any other kind of reaction. And probably this universe doesn't have any trans people either, because I figure there would certainly be trans people who aren't yet out in high school, and yet the reactions to this spell fall entirely along the lines of what gender all the characters are read as. And also the possibility of alternate reactions to the spell by people who are gay or bi or ace was never addressed (eg a gay boy who was nonetheless attracted to Fiorenze because of her fairy and found it a deeply disconcerting experience) so apparently everyone (except maybe Fiorenze herself?) is straight.
The third aspect that frustrated me is not a big issue like the first two, but it still disappointed me: it was clear that the most important emotional arc was the relationship between Fiorenze and Charlie (both of whom are female btw), and there was even indication that Fiorenze is not straight, AND YET the romance arc for the book was between Charlie and some random dude and there was like zero spark between them. Unlike between Fiorenze and Charlie, who I shipped TERRIBLY. (I am convinced btw that if nothing else, Fiorenze has the most massive crush on Charlie.)